Single-mindedness

Stickerkitty joined a writing group for peer review and discussion.  Not sure if she can run with the big dogs, or even if she wants to.  But, it’s not good to swat at the paw that feeds you.

We’ll give it a go and keep you posted from B-e-r-l-i-n-!!!!!!!!!!!!  I am dreaming about stickers every night.  It’s wild.  Sometimes it’s a sticker frenzy; sometimes there are obstacles along the way (like I’m getting run over by a subway train).  Last night I got lost in a scary neighborhood, trying to get to Kreuzburg, but ended up in some apocalyptic Terminator environment.

Found this online: “The aim of many forms of meditation is to reach single-mindedness.”

Urbanartcore.eu

From Berlin:

Urbanartcore.eu is a new independent street, design, urban art & photography blog. It’s the successor of the german street art blog Berlinpiraten.de and was launched on August 14th with an international photo-contest.

The Urbanartcore-team will be pleased to present you international news about urban activities, interventions, arts, design, photography and a lot more of fresh thing from the metropolises around the world.

Another goal of our blogs is to become a small, international authors-collective. So if you are familiar in urban areas and have some blogging experience, write us!

We like:
urban art, street art, graffiti, parkour, freerunning, photography, urban inspired design, typography, calligraphy, modern architecture, and a lot more topics around urban environment

We don’t like:
haters, fascists, buffers, sexism, spammers…we don’t want to talk about bad things

Stromausfall

I’ve had this sticker on my desk for weeks, and only today did I put 2+2 together to see what is being represented: guys (I assume) in hoodies.  All of a sudden, I realized they look like some of the punks I see on other antifa stickers.  I found the translation for stromausfall to be “blackout.”  Major DUH on my part, but the sticker is superb.  (It is especially Duh since the reproduction here below is so obvious!)  Oh well. 

Update

WordPress is acting up.  Two minutes ago, I can’t type.  Now I can.

I’m overwhelmed by how much work I need to do with the Posse database and Stickerkitty blog.  Lately, I’ve been wondering what will be my Life’s Oeuvre (har-de-har) and alas, it sure won’t be Guernica.  Aside from my super-fantastic job at SLU, which I L-O-V-E, it will be the Posse digital collection.  As far as I can tell, it is unique.  Yay.

Catching Up

I’ve got hundreds of photos the last couple of weeks from walking around and gathering stickers in Manhattan, including this one.  The blog picture doesn’t do justice to this rodent’s majesty.

Razor blade

Yesterday, Caveboy and I (and Caveboy, Jr.) walked around the lower East Side liberating stickers in 90-degree weather.  At one point, near Rutherford Park, as “we” were climbing a walk sign, two guys in a furniture truck called out and threw a razor blade in our direction.  It was slightly unnerving, until another guy nearby picked it up and said we should use it to cut the stickers off the pole.

Matt Siren

Oh wow.  I am going to meet Matt Siren next week for an interview/chat.  La la la!!!!

Metadata madness

After Kevin’s new sticker scans are loaded, I’ll need to figure out how to identify these sticker pranksters without repeating what others have done.  Others have done a lot.  A catalogue raisonne’ might do the trick.

I can’t do a catalogue raisonne’.  There are way too many out there, though everything I’ve seen is online.

Cedar Lewisohn’s STREET ART book is unparalled.  Check him out on Facebook.

More substance

This may sound obvious, but I’ve been trying to figure out how to improve Stickerkitty more substantively.  I’ve wanted to offer more sophisticated commentary regarding the stickers I’ve found in NYC and Berlin, but I’m also nervous about posting “scholarship” that might subsequently be appropriated by others.  But you know?  Smart blogging is more engaging than fluffy blogging, and so far, this blog has been pretty fluffy.  I’ll begin to identify aspects of my favorite blogs and work through this challenge.

For example, I’ve long admired Joe Duemer’s blog Sharp Sand.  As a poet and teacher, he brings a sophisticated (that word again) and thoughtful perspective to writing and literature.

Likewise, Mira’s List provides a tangible service to readers, and I applied for an Artists Writers grant after reading about the program on her blog.

(Side note: My use of the term “sophisticated” turns off some people because it sounds elitist, from what they say.  I don’t agree, but maybe I need to find a different term.  The term “informed” may work better in certain circumstances.)

There are several fantastic artists’ blogs (that I’ll post soon), and I hope to bring a similar level of creativity to Stickerkitty that isn’t here yet.  Now that it’s summer, I can spend time developing a blogging “voice” and doing more research on NYC and Berlin stickers.

In any case, it’s time to ramp it up.

Catching up.

My blog stats are jumping.  I think I had 8-10 hits this past week.

Anyway, I am finally starting to buckle down and work on the Stickerkitty has a Posse database, with help from Kevin, Tsewang, and Nathan–the crack team from last summer.  May drag Caleb into this, too.  I have a few hundred new stickers from Berlin to add.

Here is a photo of the entrance to the Anne Frank Zentrum in Berlin.  Right next door is an amazing bookstore and gallery called Neurotitan.  I bought one of the We Dream of Meat plushes there.  Turns out they are more difficult to find than I expected.